


navigating

by tastybaby



Series: all of us [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: (but not in excess), (mostly fluff), Couch Sex, Dinner dates, Drinking, Fluff and Smut, Injured Leon, Injury, Internalized Biphobia, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Sex in the Dark, Uncharted Emotional Landscapes, based on fanart, everyone is confused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:42:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25522303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tastybaby/pseuds/tastybaby
Summary: Nessa, Sonia, Leon, and Raihan out for a date in Hulbury to celebrate the start of the season. Postgame, five months after "a thing or two."Ensuing events of feeling out boundaries, learning how to fit together, and unearthing buried, self-limiting beliefs.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan, Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan/Rurina | Nessa/Sonia, Dande | Leon/Rurina | Nessa, Dande | Leon/Sonia, Kibana | Raihan/Rurina | Nessa, Kibana | Raihan/Sonia, Rurina | Nessa/Sonia
Series: all of us [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1849045
Comments: 28
Kudos: 55





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> based on this [beautiful work](https://twitter.com/watercups/status/1232027716209324094) that mer posted in february, because i haven't stopped thinking about it for five months.

“Oh, Leon, he’s here,” Sonia gestured to Raihan, who was approaching leisurely with his hands in his pockets. 

The time of year that the pre-season exhibition matches started popping up in Wyndon always aligned with the best time of year for Basculin, according to Nessa, so they tried to make a habit of taking Leon out to a nice dinner to celebrate his loss. It was tradition for Victor to invite him every year, and Leon always enjoyed it, even if digging his champion jersey out of a box in his closet just to lose stung a little bit. 

Sonia had similarly traded her lab coat for her old khaki coat, for no other reason than that she had plans to get drunk tonight and didn’t feel it appropriate to do so in her work clothes. Raihan was still in his gym’s uniform, despite cleaning up considerably from the match he’d had with Bede a few hours ago.

“Just look at you two,” Raihan’s eyes softened when he looked over the pair. “Just like old times, eh?” He slid his hand into Leon’s and pulled Sonia in for a hug to greet her. 

“It does seem that way,” Sonia laughed and kissed his cheek. “Nessa’s already gone home. Our table should be ready by seven.”

“Except I didn’t have this much time to be carting off to Hulbury back then,” Leon reflected, and she watched him look her over warmly. “And you would have been much too stressed to make the time.” She laughed, but didn’t argue. 

This was the first year that they were all meeting for dinner together as a single unit, rather than four friends or, in more recent years, two couples. Sonia liked the way Leon fit between them in the cab ride over, with his head on Raihan’s shoulder and his fingers laced with hers while they talked about the match. 

Victor had, as always, rolled him out flat, but it was theatrical and grandiose and all in good fun. The kid was still so meek and understated, always polite and always apologizing, but this year he had smiled at Leon when he shook his hand. 

“He told me it was a pleasure, and it was nice to see me,” Leon added. 

“Smug bastard,” Raihan scoffed. 

“I think it’s nice that he’s gaining some confidence,” Sonia mused, tracing her finger over the tendons on the back of Leon’s hand. 

“How many years left in his term?” she asked, watching the stadium grow smaller and further away out the window. All the vendors outside had already packed up, and the spectators were taking to the streets to celebrate their champion, and the return of the season. She wondered if Victor was still holed up in a back room waiting for the crowds to disperse. 

“Two,” Leon replied thoughtfully. “Unless he waives the limit or decides to stay another term.”

“Or if I beat him this season,” Raihan added playfully. The other two shot him a look and he grinned. They both knew quite well that he had no intention of becoming champion, but that he did hold the record for the most points collected at the Battle Tower. 

They spent the rest of the ride in comfortable, varying degrees of silence, with Raihan catching Leon up on what parts of the match the public seemed to like, and Sonia filling in with what she heard in the stands. Eventually the conversation would wind down and go off in different directions, and they were in Hulbury before they realized. 

* * *

Nessa was waiting for them outside the restaurant when they landed, and surprisingly, still in her gym uniform as well. Leon didn’t think to ask about it, but Raihan very comfortably made a remark as soon as he saw her.

“Hulbury loves it when I’m out and about in uniform,” she shrugged. 

“Fair enough.” 

He watched her kiss Sonia and hug Raihan, and then it was his turn and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling away when he felt her shoulders get stiff. He knew that she still had some complicated feelings about being affectionate with anyone other than Sonia in public, which he respected, so he gave her a pat on the shoulder and accepted her apologetic smile with a warm one.

“I’m starving,” Sonia interjected, either missing the interaction or moving forward to resolve the tension. 

“Table’s ready,” Nessa seemed to snap out of her funk and led the three of them inside. 

* * *

“Baby,” Sonia thumbed through the menu with a wrinkled brow, “what kind of wine do I get with the grilled fish?” 

Nessa seemed to think for a moment, leaning over to read the description for the plate Sonia was considering. 

“Probably Pinot Noir? Unless you want the chanterelles, then I would do the Rioja Reserva.” 

“Ooh, that sounds good,” Raihan chimed in.

“If you get the chanterelles, can I have a bite?” Sonia looked up at him.

“For sure.” 

“What about you, Leon?” Nessa turned to him, leaning forward with her palms on the sides of her seat. “Anything look good?”

Leon realized that he hadn’t even opened his menu yet, occupying his time by watching everyone else gleefully discuss their meals. Raihan leaned over to open his menu for him with a knowing smile.

“Huh? Uh, no, I’m not sure yet.” 

“You want white or red?”

“I probably shouldn’t be drinking if I’m dressed like this,” he shrugged. 

They were in a fairly private corner of the restaurant, but he didn’t want rumors circulating back to Victor that he’d been so gripped by his loss that he’d found himself in the bottom of a bottle of wine by the end of the night, regardless of whether or not that was true. He knew people were around, and that they were aware of him and his dining companions, so he’d better be on his best behavior. Raihan laced their fingers together under the table and gave it a squeeze.

“I’ve got some whiskey back at the house. You can catch up later,” Nessa offered, and he smiled gratefully. “You should get the pasta, if you’re not sure. Super yummy.” 

“Oh, yeah?”

Their waiter seemed to agree when he asked about it, and with one less social interaction with a stranger left in the day, Leon relaxed his shoulders and finally remembered to remove his hat and place it on the table.

* * *

“Ah—! That really hits the spot,” Sonia leaned back, resting her elbow on the back of the chair.

“We haven’t even gotten our food yet,” Raihan laughed, looking up from something that had captured him on his phone.

“The wine! It’s  _ so _ good,” she preened, catching Leon smiling at the waiter in the corner of her eye.

He was so polite, even when other men in his position had decided they didn’t need to be. It was endearing, watching him shrink and nod like he wasn’t a national superstar. She ended up nudging him with her foot to get his attention. He looked over with a start, hands resting on the table, and she smiled and mouthed that she loved him. Leon softened and returned the gesture, quietly, privately, and she reached out to brush his hand.

She was pleased that he allowed it for a moment, but understanding when he pulled away as a server came by with an arm full of food. Navigating the parameters of their new relationships was taking some time, and they had made a conscious choice not to do too much of it in public places. The rules were starting to relax as they all became more comfortable, but Leon had always been particularly cautious when he was in uniform. He’d drawn a very clear boundary between his work and personal lives--likely out of necessity--and she honored his privacy by allowing him to pull away whenever he needed. They were still learning, but Sonia liked to imagine that they were learning well.

“I’d like to propose a toast,” Raihan raised his glass.

“Would you now?”

“Yes,” he eyed Nessa, who had interjected. “To Leon and his loss,” he paused to let them snicker, and Leon leaned against his chair to laugh, “and to us.”

“To us? For what reason?” Sonia asked, giddy from Raihan’s teasing.

“Just being ourselves,” he stated plainly. 

“I’ll drink to that,” Leon raised his glass of water, and all four of their glasses connected with a pleasing sound. 

* * *

They ate, and just as tradition required, made their way back to Nessa’s house. Leon and Raihan couldn’t keep their hands off of each other as soon as they got in the door, which was something of a departure from the usual match rewatch followed by a movie, but Nessa didn’t think it was an unwelcome one. Raihan was practically curled around Leon from behind, with his hand sliding up his jersey to expose his navel, and his lips tasting the bit of skin above his high collar. 

“Whiskey?” Nessa offered, watching a belatedly modest flush wash over Leon’s cheeks.

“Please,” he responded, and she left for the kitchen to pour him a shot. She hadn’t had much to drink at the restaurant, and ended up pouring one for herself as well. 

Raihan didn’t offer to move from cradling Leon in his arms while he clinked glasses with Nessa and they both knocked back their drinks, which was much more difficult for Leon than it was for her. The next logical step was to make their way to her bedroom, and Sonia was already ripping off her strip lashes and carding through Nessa’s closet for something comfortable to wear. 

Leon stopped Nessa in the hallway with a hand on her back, asking for permission, and Nessa let him in, tasting the alcohol on his lips while Raihan breathed over her shoulder. Shifting sounds of clothing and skin creating friction filled the hall. She wasn’t exactly sure what they were doing, but Leon’s lips and Raihan’s hands on her waist were keeping her mind occupied, and she led them into her bedroom. 


	2. Chapter 2

Sonia was, naturally, already rolled up in bed with her makeup off, brushing her hair out in fiery waves down her shoulders.

“You three’re having fun, yeah?” she laughed, trailing her fingers through her hair. She pet the bed to welcome them in, setting her hair brush aside. “I’m _way_ too drunk to have sex right now,” she frowned.

“We can go in another room if you want,” Leon offered. 

“No, you’re fine,” Sonia laid back on a fluffy pillow. “I wanna watch you three play around.”

“I was thinking about turning off the lights,” Raihan mused, fingering the delicate chain around Nessa’s waist. “I kinda wanna see what that’s like, if everyone’s down. And then Sonia can drift off if she gets tired.” 

“Sounds fun,” Leon weighed in. He was in the middle of eagerly unbuttoning Raihan’s jersey and pulling it off his shoulders, and then removing their glovelets to fold them in half neatly on the nightstand. Nessa was placing her jewelry in a decorative shell on her vanity. She agreed as well, feeling grateful, because she was in sort of a vulnerable mood out of nowhere and thought being in the dark would help her relax. 

They flicked off the lights and got into bed. It was circular, so Raihan’s long legs were best accommodated in the middle, and she and Leon took either side. 

Leon rolled over on top of Raihan almost immediately, picking up right where they left off in the hallway. In such close proximity, she could barely make out their figures, but she could hear them breathing, and the sounds of their lips moving together; Raihan’s laughter, and Leon’s hands sliding over his chest. 

Sonia was at her back, curling an arm around her waist and quietly coming up to whisper in her ear. 

“You okay?” she asked. The other two seemed fairly distracted, so Nessa shifted enough to respond.

“Yeah.”

“You seem nervous,” Sonia breathed, and paused for a moment. Her lips were almost pressed to Nessa’s cheek, and in the dark it felt like a bubble had formed around them, if only for a second, and Nessa could feel her body melting and molding with hers. She was relieved to feel Sonia’s familiar touch as much as she registered her concern and her warmth. Sonia’s hand slid down her arm to find her palm and wrapped around it, giving her a reassuring squeeze. 

“Maybe, but I’m fine.” Nessa knew that all she had to do was say something, and Leon and Raihan would stop and they could all watch a movie until they drifted off. She knew that she could tell them not to touch her, if that was what she needed, and she knew that they would sleep soundly and feel no remorse for it. She understood _all_ of this, and she trusted them, but she hadn’t ever said any of that before; the fear of the unknown, of breaking the seal, was a monolith in her path. But it was nowhere near as solid as the feeling of Sonia’s arm around her, their fingers filling the gaps between each others’ palms, nor the understanding and respect that Leon showed her, nor the experience and trust that she had built with Raihan many years ago. 

Nessa made a conscious decision to shelve her feelings of fear and insecurity for the moment, remaining aware of them, but focusing on the known, which was that this was her house, and she was in a safe place with people who valued her. 

“I’m here,” Sonia reminded her, and Nessa kissed her lips in gratitude. 

* * *

Raihan couldn’t hear the words, but he could hear their tone, and he knew better than to jump in. He didn’t have much capacity to eavesdrop with Leon kissing up and down his neck and raking the pads of his fingers over the shaved bit of his head, and the noise he was making in response to it was enough to cover their whispers. Still, he was aware, and catalogued somewhere in his mind that Sonia checking in on her confirmed the body language Nessa was using did mean that she needed checking in on. He trusted Sonia to take the lead, and knew that the best thing he could do right now was not draw attention to it unless one of the two of them brought it up. 

Leon had him pretty occupied, either way. He wasn’t sure if it was the whiskey, or the adrenaline that came with the start of the season, or even just that they hadn’t had sex in a few days, but he was pressing all of his buttons like a machine—programmed with a rhythm to rile him up and turn him on and have him straining against the fabric of his shorts in near record time. Maybe it was because he couldn’t _see_ him, but every sweep of tongue and every scrape of teeth that traveled from his neck and down to his chest felt ten times _more_ than it normally did, and it was winding him so tightly and in the best way that all he could do was hitch and breathe to get through it. 

Nessa had been very bold in the inception of their relationship. She was the one to bring up the concept of group sex, and her interest in it, and she was the first to say something when they realized they were forming something more than two couples who occasionally slept together. 

Her confidence still existed sexually, but he watched her struggle with affection in public and in private in very much the same way Leon did when they first got together. 

His conflict had come from fame, and his unwillingness to explore his sexuality and queer romantic alignment in the public eye while he was still just trying to figure it out with Raihan. His biggest fear was to be lauded as an icon of the community, since he, at the time, still knew so little about who he was or how he existed under the umbrella of not having a binary sexuality. 

They had talked about it at length and came to an agreement about what Leon was comfortable with in public. Raihan himself was only slightly further ahead in his journey than Leon, and despite his reputation, could be quite private, so it was a comfortable and easy conversation to have. He knew less about Nessa and her boundaries, and even less about where she was in her queer journey. She was very comfortable expressing affection for Sonia, and had been for years. Raihan wasn’t sure if it was because they were men, because they were outside of her core relationship, or some other reason. In fact, he didn’t even have confidence that it was his business to know these things, but he’d recently realized he loved her and could sense she was holding something back.

“Distracted?” Leon grazed the shell of his ear with his teeth, and the warmth of his breath made Raihan shudder. 

“I am,” Raihan confessed. Leon laughed, not expecting honesty, and stroked his face. 

“By what?”

“Nessa. She’s been awfully quiet and I wanted to keep touching her boobs.” He rubbed Leon’s back idly.

Nessa scoffed, but he could hear the smile behind it, and he felt the bed shift as she came to her knees. 

“They’re right here,” she lilted, and he heard the sound of her neoprene cropped jersey landing on the floor. 

“Well, I can’t see them, and you know how I am with object permanence,” he teased, sliding his free hand over the sheets to find hers. Leon was kneeling again to unzip his jersey and cast it aside. He laid himself onto his chest and Raihan relished in the feeling of skin-to-skin contact underneath him. 

“Do I have to do everything for you?” Nessa laid down next to him, guiding his hand up to her chest. He savored the swell of her breasts and how they moved with his thumb with so little resistance. His hands were much wider, but it was a lovely handful and he would play with them as much as he was allowed. 

“Mm, yes, if you don’t mind,” Raihan hummed, content. His lips sought hers and he found them, soft and plush and distinctly different from Leon’s. Less familiar, but more responsive. Her lips told him she was eager to explore him, and her voice dripped over his tongue with each swipe of his thumb over her nipple. Leon started kissing down his torso and peeling away his shorts and he felt his eyes roll back. 

Raihan didn’t think he would ever get used to the way Leon would just _swallow_ him, all the way down until his nose and forehead were flush with his body, like it was nothing. It always made him gasp and sink into the mattress and Leon constantly had to keep a firm forearm on his hips or Raihan would lose control and buck upward at the wrong times and choke him. It was worth it to have to focus on not straining against his arm to feel anything close to this, and he would groan and moan freely, knowing it encouraged Leon to keep going. 

Nessa must have realized he was going to be useless until Leon moved on, because she reached to cradle his face with her hands and tease his lip with her teeth. Leon was doing something with his tongue that made his toes curl, and all he could do was hold onto Nessa’s hair and shudder words of encouragement for both of them into her mouth. 

“I’m gonna be honest,” Nessa pulled away, raking her fingernails gently over his chest and making him squirm. “I mostly just want to grab a vibrator and listen to you two.” 

Sonia made a noise, half awake, to voice her approval of this concept. 

“Sounds great,” Raihan managed, sinking his teeth into his lip when Leon picked up the pace. “Uh, if, _ooh_ , if I can last that long.” 

“I’ll go easy on you,” Leon popped off to add cheerfully, pausing to slip out of his leggings and shorts before Raihan could feel him looming over him again.

* * *

Nessa was crawling around under her bed to retrieve what they’d started calling the girls’ “toybox,” so Leon busied himself with further undressing Raihan and feeling around to kiss Sonia on her forehead. He ended up reaching the bridge of her nose instead, but she giggled dreamily at him in response, so he considered it a success.

He let his hand explore Raihan’s cock and moved downward between his legs, enjoying the shiver that came out of him from it.

“What do you want?”

“Um,” Raihan considered, “That blowjob kind of knocked me out, I’d be satisfied just finishing off together. Or you can fuck me, if you want to.”

That was a little vague for Leon, but Raihan didn’t sound like he was terribly committed to any one thing, so he didn’t press further. His sides kind of hurt from exerting himself today, so he settled between Raihan’s legs and circled both of them in his hand.

“Ooh, yeah, let’s do that.”

It was around that time that Nessa had retrieved her toy of choice and switched it on, or at least that’s what Leon assumed she was doing. It was whisper-quiet and he could _barely_ hear some sort of motor running, but her breathing changed immediately and she gripped his arm. 

“I guess we should get started,” he grinned, and dipped in to steal another kiss from Raihan. 

Nessa rolled her hips into her hand and whined, burying her head somewhere between Raihan’s head and shoulder to mouth at his skin. Leon only knew this because he could hear her voice muffling and becoming clear again with the wet, fervent sounds of lips against skin, and Raihan was making some of those telltale vocalizations that he made when his neck got any sort of attention. His shoulders threatened to slacken as he picked up his own pace, fucking into his hand against Raihan with enough fervor to make Nessa’s bed creak. 

Sonia, who he’d assumed had drifted off by now, stirred and hummed, “Mm, baby, you sound lovely.” Nessa’s voice picked up and he was left to imagine that Sonia was touching her, somehow. “Want me to finger you?” Nessa choked out something in the shape of an affirmative between high gasps and higher moans that made Leon, suddenly, really grateful for the invention of the motor. 

Raihan was clamoring for purchase in Leon’s shoulders, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him down so that their chests were almost pressed together, with just enough space to let Leon maintain his pace. He groaned, and Leon felt inspired to capture the crook of his neck in his teeth.

“Leon! Fuck, oh my _God,_ you’re gonna make me come,” he warned, convulsing, and raking his dull nails down Leon’s back. His legs tried to close, digging into Leon’s sides as he twitched and rocked and spilled, but to no avail; Leon kept moving until he hissed and groaned with force and lost himself in Raihan’s embrace. 

His arms were shaking with the release of tension and he collapsed on top of Raihan without grace, chests heaving and slick with sweat while they listened in the dark to Nessa struggling to keep herself together. Nearly too late, he reached out to root his fingers through her hair and gripped a section of it, pulling _just_ lightly enough for her to resist it with her thrashing, and she released a long, shivering moan that left no doubt in anyone’s mind that she’d gotten where she needed to be. The motor ceased and Nessa laid back against the bed, sighing, satisfied.

“Oh,” Nessa spoke, breathless, “I made a mess.” 

“Us, too,” Raihan laughed humbly beneath him. 

“Let’s deal with it in the morning,” she shifted, and it sounded like she was kissing Sonia. “Fuck, I love you so much, baby,” she crooned.

“Love you too,” Sonia’s voice came through muffled, likely under Nessa’s embrace. 

They all traded varying words of affection and good-nights, and with the lights already off, they were free to doze off as they pleased. 

* * *

Raihan woke in the morning to the alarming sound of Leon hissing in pain. Immediately alert, he sat up and threw the covers off of him, blinking clarity into his eyes so he could look him over.

“Ow,” Leon’s brows were knit together, and his voice came through strained.

“Talk to me, love,” he reached out to brush Leon’s hair away from his face, “you’re in pain?”

“My left side,” Leon gestured to himself with his chin. “I feel like my guts are gonna fall ou— _f_ _uck! Agh!”_

Sonia and Nessa were springing up to check on him, and Leon was glaring at the top of the canopy, seeming to be laying as motionless as possible from the waist down. Leon didn’t swear often, and even less did he express when he was in pain, so Raihan had no choice to assume that it was severe.

“You need a doctor,” Nessa leapt out of bed, kneeling on the floor at his side to inspect him.

  
“I don’t— _fucking hell—_ I don’t." Leon looked furious, paused, and winced as he took a deep breath. "I know exactly what this is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting this like an absolute madman less than 24 hours after chapter one lmao what can i say me luv me ot4 : )  
> also yes do not worry sonia's nails are short enough for fingering shhh don't worry about it


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i tried to make it clear, but just in case it isn't, the majority of this chapter takes place in a flashback.

“Sorry, I didn’t have anything bigger, so...”

Leon hissed when Nessa returned to the room with an ice pack and tucked it between his arm and his side, and laid a bag of frozen peas on top of his ribs.

“This is perfect, thanks.”

“Leon, please, you scared the shit out of us,” Raihan laid on his stomach next to Leon, who was still in bed. He stroked his forehead with his thumb, gaze scanning him for something he could fix, or something he could make better.

“Do you remember, ah, probably five or six years ago at this point, that year that the season started late?” He asked, looking directly between where Nessa and Sonia sat on either side of his legs.

“When they replaced the seating in Wyndon Stadium,” Nessa recalled, and Leon’s expression immediately flooded with guilt. Sonia’s shoulders stiffened.

“Sonia,” Leon addressed her, “he’s in jail. I don’t think he’s gonna come after us for breaking an NDA for two people.” Raihan and Nessa both turned to Sonia like they were terrified of what would come next.

“It hurts for him to talk,” she reached out to take his hand as carefully as she could. “I’ll take over?”

Leon nodded. Sonia took a long, deep breath.

“It’s called an oblique strain. Basically, the muscles right here,” she gestured to her side, near her ribs, “get little tears in them from athletic trauma. It’s immensely painful because you use your core for almost everything, but they’re inflamed and irritated—so, talking, walking, raising your arms,” she paused, realizing she hadn’t actually been looking either of them in the eye. “Breathing, laughing, sneezing...It’s terrible, but depending on how bad it is, he could recover in as little as a few days.”

He watched her stare back down at their hands, and he saw the reflections of the first time swimming around in her pupils. She had clearly locked this away somewhere deep and private, and it was dragging other things with it on its way up. He rubbed her knuckles and opened his mouth to continue.

“I got hurt that year, about a month before the season was supposed to start. We never figured out if it was the conditioning I was doing, or if I really just over-exerted myself, but I tore up my sides and couldn’t even get out of bed.”

Nessa and Raihan were watching in horror, and he didn’t blame them. But the longer he withheld the full truth, the more it soured and singed his tongue, so he pressed on.

“They didn’t want to call my mum, but I needed someone to take care of me, and I guess the first night, I was out of it on the anti-inflammatory medication, and I asked for—“

“They flew me in.”

“From Kalos?” Nessa asked, incredulous.

“From Kalos. I stayed with him for a month,” Sonia’s shoulders continued to sink, the weight of her words pushing and curling her spine. “They offered to pay me. I didn’t take it.”

“We weren’t exactly on speaking terms at the time, if I’m remembering correctly,” Leon took on a more nostalgic tone, remembering how mortified and furious with himself he was to have uttered her name to Oleana at all.

“No, not at all.”

* * *

Now that they were talking about it, Sonia remembered very clearly the tension in the air that first night. They had used some of the chairman’s obscene wealth to fly her in privately from her study-abroad program in Kalos and convert Leon’s little home gym in his flat into a second room for her. She’d been given a key, but Oleana was waiting at the airport to pick her up.

“The chairman sends his gratitude,” she’d said brusquely, keeping her eyes forward and only on Sonia if she was waiting for a response.

When she carted her suitcases in, she saw Leon’s new apartment and rolled her eyes. She knew it was going to be nice, but the space was so wasted on Leon. There were stacks of caps on the kitchen counter, with a pristine stovetop and dining area that were certainly never used, and completely bare, un-decorated walls. Not even a fake houseplant or something—with all this natural light, she figured he could have had real plants in here—just a few pieces of furniture and a pile of training equipment in the corner of the main area. She supposed that was everything they shoved out of the way to make room for her bed.

“He’s in his room, to the right. We’ve arranged a space for you here to the left,” Oleana checked her watch. “I have to go. Call us if you need anything,” she nodded to her, and then Sonia could hear her heels getting quieter down the hall outside his front door.

Sonia slipped off her shoes at the door and walked cautiously to his bedroom, peering in to find him sleeping on his back, with what looked like a big ice pack fixed to his side. There was a bottle of pills and a glass of water next to his nightstand, and she was curious, so she picked them up and read the label.

_So this is the kind of medical care that celebrities are getting,_ she wondered sourly, and moved to set it back down. She missed the table and it clattered to the floor, luckily closed tightly, but the pills rattled loudly when they fell, and Leon started, and then wretched in pain.

He had dark circles under his eyes. Sonia couldn’t recount a time in her adult life that she had seen Leon looking so miserable, and even then, he was smiling at her.

“Good to see you,” he breathed, sounding strained. Oleana had told her it would be a few days before he could talk without too much soreness.

“Oh, Leon,” Sonia sighed. She couldn’t stay mad at him—it wasn’t his fault for getting hurt, and hearing that he was asking for her _by name_ despite them having another falling out months ago was enough to soften her armor. Then, when he looked at her with those warm eyes, staying cold became a losing game. She wheeled over his desk chair to sit down and retrieve the bottle for him, setting it gently back in its place.

“What’ve you gotten yourself into?” Sonia rested her face in her palm, balancing an elbow on her knee. He turned his head slowly, like it was stone grinding against stone, to face her.

“Went and injured myself.”

“Why would you do that?”

Leon started to chuckle, pleased that she was playing along, no doubt, but he gasped and winced. She watched the muscles in his arms tense and his hands ball into fists.

“Not sure what my plan was,” he managed. “What time is it, now? I take another dose at half seven.” Sonia picked up the digital clock next to his bed.

“It’s barely four.”

“Three hours,” Leon watched the ceiling in his bedroom. “Well, thanks for coming out of your way.”

“I’m off to get unpacked,” Sonia stood, but left the chair where it was. “Have you eaten?”

“Not much of an appetite, honestly.”

“I’ll buy you a milkshake.”

“You’re the best,” Leon called, sounding a little brighter than when she’d walked in.

The first few hours were fairly quiet, with Leon drifting in and out while she worked on university coursework at his desk. But just before seven came around, Sonia was meandering through his kitchen, snooping around in his fridge to see how he’d been feeding himself when she heard him shout from his bedroom. On high alert, she slammed the fridge shut and darted over to the doorway, hanging her head in to check on him.

“Ice,” he pleaded, gripping his side, “please.”

When she made her way into the room, he was groaning and pushing himself up to a sitting position with his arms.

“Easy,” she warned, but rushed in to get his ice applied like he showed her. “What happened? You okay?”

“I sneezed,” he rubbed his forehead, exasperated.

“You really banged yourself up,” Sonia observed.

“Sonia, you know I really don’t like to complain,” Leon sat back, easing himself into a pillow. “This is the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced.”

She didn’t have a response for that at all, and she didn’t think he was asking for one. Sonia covered his hand with hers.

* * *

“I’m sorry I never told you,” Leon looked to Raihan, whose face was sunken and drained from what he’d just heard.

“I don’t think you were in much of a position to,” he reflected, reaching to brush Leon’s fringe from his eyes. His forehead was damp and clammy—likely from the pain—and it made Raihan’s heart wrench. He’d only ever seen Leon looking this depleted once before, when the league had nearly tumbled to the ground at the hands of Rose’s severely misguided and dangerous abuse of power. He didn’t like thinking about it, and now wasn’t the time to relive sleeping in shifts with Hop, drowning in the rhythm of Leon’s heart monitor beeping irregularly.

He felt like every day he was finding it out about a different way Rose had manipulated Leon from the shadows, while the rest of the league—the rest of the _region_ had been worshipping and admiring their chairman. It made him sick to his stomach to linger on, so he avoided it whenever it didn’t serve him.

“You should still get it checked out,” Sonia suggested. She had her arm around Nessa, who had dropped her head into her hands. He was less familiar with her relationship with Rose, but he knew they had clashed in the past. This was probably a painful conversation for her, too.

“I’ll call my physician and see if she can see me today,” Leon closed his eyes for a moment, but kept speaking. “Sorry to put you through all of this.”

“Hush, you,” Sonia rubbed his leg.

“Just tell us what we can do to help,” Raihan pressed his thumb between Leon’s brows in an attempt to soothe him. His shoulders seemed to relax. Nessa stood and walked wordlessly to the other side of the room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shorter, more transitional chapter this time.

“I think you’ve still got some clothes here,” Nessa thought out loud, with an arm shoved deep into her densely populated closet. She had a habit of borrowing her partners’ clothes, and she was almost sure she had a pair of Leon’s sweatpants hanging in here somewhere. With some digging, she found a pair that weren’t long enough to be Raihan’s and weren’t pink enough to be Sonia’s, and laid them on the bed next to him.

The three of them were looking at her with varying degrees of puzzled expressions that made her realize she’d been thinking through all of her actions, but not saying anything.

“I wouldn’t expect you’d want to show up at a doctor’s office in your old jersey,” she explained, fishing out a t-shirt that was probably Raihan’s but would do the trick.

“I didn’t even think of that,” Leon’s brows turned up, grateful, “thank you.”

* * *

Getting Leon dressed took some doing; with the limited range of motion in his core, and Raihan’s unwillingness to let him hurt himself further, it ended up being a team effort. Sonia brushed his hair and tied it out of his way while Nessa got out her KT tape and followed a guide they found online. Raihan ended up calling Leon’s physician, who had apparently also treated his previous injury, and insisted they get him in right away. Raihan volunteered to see him to the doctor.

“You should call Hop,” Sonia eyed him with a painful sense of responsibility. “And your mum.”

“I should,” Leon echoed.

“Are you going to?”

“Well,” Leon, now dressed and standing at the door while Raihan ordered a cab, looked past her, out at the Lighthouse that watched over the city. “If I call them now, all they’ll be able to do is bite their nails until I get a better idea of what recovery’s gonna look like. I’ll call afterward.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Sonia’s concern was like ice at the nape of his neck, melting and crawling down his spine to pool in a puddle of guilt in his stomach.

“I know you will.”

* * *

Raihan had run back in to grab his coat, with Leon outside and seated in the car waiting for him when Sonia reached for his sleeve, just outside the door. He couldn’t factor in her tenderness against his sense of urgency so he stared at her, halted and confused, while she fingered the hem. She didn’t say anything, so he uttered her name.

Sonia’s hands reached up to frame either side of his face. He leant into it enough for her, on her toes, to kiss him with wet lashes and an unsteady jaw.

“Chin up,” she breathed, pressing her forehead to his. “He’ll be fine. You’re sulking.”

“I am?” he felt her waist between his hands. Her way of reading him always surprised Raihan, but he was beginning to learn that it came from a place of empathy, and of shared experiences. Feeling seen—perhaps more clearly than he had hoped—he laughed and kissed her again.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he recognized.

Sonia’s fingers caressed the sides of his face, spreading over the back of his neck and down his shoulders to his chest. She gave him a little push, and he stood straight, looking down at her with what he was sure was the unfiltered, hideously affectionate and warm expression of his words.

“I’ll call you as soon as we know more,” Raihan departed with a kiss to her forehead.

The Corviknight’s metal wings groaned and creaked as powerful gusts of air pushed them up into the sky, and Raihan could see Sonia standing there, with her hair swirling around in the wind, watching them glide away.

* * *

“Everything okay with Sonia?” Leon asked, sounding curious after a period of silence, watching Hulbury disappear over the hills. Raihan folded his hands behind his head.

“Told her I loved her,” he stated with closed eyes.

The cab was quiet again, save for their breathing, and Raihan began to wonder if that was the wrong thing to say.

He was relieved when Leon’s head rolled to look at him with a proud grin and affectionate eyes.

“She said it first, didn’t she?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, “she beat me to it.”

“0 for 2 for you then,” Leon teased, and Raihan let out a laugh. “Congratulations, mate.”

“Thanks,” he broke their gaze, “feels good to be in love.”

Raihan looked out over the rooftop gardens of Spikemuth as they passed, feeling Leon concentrating and sifting through his words internally. He knew he was processing, so he stayed quiet.

“So it’s just Nessa then.”

“Right,” Raihan agreed.

When they made their initial arrangement and drew their initial boundaries, they purposely left space for all kinds of relationships. There was no expectation to fall in love, and for Sonia, Leon, and Raihan, it had happened mostly by accident. It was too late for Leon and Raihan to discontinue feeling love for Sonia, and she had expressed to both of them the same way, but Nessa’s distance continued to whisper doubt in his ear. One of the stipulations in the beginning had been that if a new boundary was discovered, all parties would revert back to where they were last year. But now, Nessa and Sonia were both wrapped up and entangled with him, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to sever that painlessly. He was willing, sure, but it would be hard, and he wondered if their friendship would take a toll.

Leon and Sonia had already been in such a turbulent place. Would they make it if Nessa pulled the plug?

Raihan shook his head. He reminded himself that he needed to wait for people to actually express their feelings, rather than diagnosing them. There was no reason for him to be making plans for severance just because he was worried about Nessa.

He had more pressing things to take up space in his head, like his boyfriend’s injury and the discretion they were going to need to employ to get him in and out of this appointment to avoid national attention. He promised himself he’d pick Leon’s brain about it later, once they knew what was going on.

* * *

“I told him I loved him,” Sonia confessed, pulling the sheets off of Nessa’s bed.

“Oh,” she started. “How’d he respond?”

“Um, he...reciprocated.”

“Oh, good for you two,” Nessa worried her lip, taking the linens into a basket with more force than she would have liked.

Nessa wished that she had the words to convey the joy she felt for Sonia, but it was curdled and spoiled with her own feelings of fear and doubt. Sonia was so fearless and confident, loving openly and broadly, lacing herself between Raihan and Leon like she was born to do it. But Nessa couldn’t find herself in that picture, as much as she longed to. She felt an immense guilt for even caring for either of the two of them, feeling her boundaries shift as she considered the idea of loving the men she slept with.

Surely there was a reason for this, wasn’t there? As much as she wanted to ignore it, there were roots gnarling around her heart with their names carved into them, growing into love with a speed that made her stumble and shortened her breath. She didn’t want it, but it was there. She had been so comfortable in her identity as a woman who slept with everyone but only held love for women, like Sonia, but she found herself longing for those two in the same way. It wasn’t who she was, or at least not who she was _supposed_ to be. She had put off having this conversation with Sonia for as long as she could, but now she found herself acting out, huffing and withholding praise for a loved one who had just entered a new phase in one of her relationships.

“Sorry,” Nessa broke her silence, feeling Sonia’s concern before she saw it on her face. “Sorry. I’m being a brat, but I’m actually really happy for you. It’s just really confusing,” she rested in the embrace that her girlfriend had leapt over the bed to deliver.

“Let’s talk about it,” Sonia suggested, predicting her thinking process. Nessa steadied herself with a deep breath.

“Yeah,” she agreed, “let’s talk about it."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nessa has box braids now. why? uhh.. because i said so. protective hairstyles will come in handy during the season, anyway.

“Raihan? This is a surprise,” Leon’s mum answered, with her thumb obstructing their view through the camera lens. “Anak, come here, show me how to use this,” she called out to someone, but by the name, he assumed it was Hop.

“How are you? Everything alright?”

“Afternoon, Mrs. Matapang,” he greeted her politely. “Everything’s just fi—”

“Please,” she smiled, with the camera seeming to float in front of her. “You can call me Agnes.” Hop appeared in frame with that hereditary smile that the Matapangs were known for. He must have shown her how to wake up Rotom.

“Raihan!” Hop cheered, “Bede and I were just talking about your battle the other day. I was _gripped!_ Let my lunch go completely cold, I was so focused on the telly,” he paused. “Where’s Lee?”

Hop received what looked like an admonishing glance from his mother, and he corrected himself.

“Where’s _manong_ Lee?” he asked, and she seemed satisfied.

“Right here,” Raihan watched with a glimmer of pride as his Rotom intuitively changed positions, bringing Leon, who was sitting upright in his bed, into frame.

“Hey, Mamang _._ Hop, you’re looking strong,” Leon managed a grin, but Raihan could still hear that twinge of strain in his voice. Agnes and Hop seemed to pick up on it as well, because both of their expressions softened with concern.

“I’ve never seen you in bed later than eleven,” Agnes observed. “You’re hurt, sick? What is it?”

“Injured,” Leon replied after a dry swallow, “but not terribly. Doctor said I should be okay in three weeks at most.”

“What _happened?!_ ” Hop’s face got closer to the camera, and he could only assume that he was lunging forward to dissect every detail on the screen. All they could see was his eyebrow and a few puffs of hair. Raihan and Leon exchanged looks of mutual affection. His tenacious little brother was still as charmingly energetic as ever, it seemed.

“I watched your whole match, it didn’t look like you were hurt at all! Did you fall? Break something?” His forehead buzzed around the screen, and eventually, his mum’s hand in his shoulder guided him back into frame. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay!” Leon struggled through what would have normally been his heroic, full-bellied, jolly laugh. It didn’t convince Hop nor his mother in the slightest. “It’s my left side, so I’ll be sore for about a week, and then I’ve got a whole library of PT to work on.” Raihan felt him reaching for his hand out of frame. He rubbed his knuckles with his thumb.

“We should go see him. I can take care of you!” Hop offered enthusiastically, jutting a thumb out to point at his chest. Raihan could sense the tension in Leon’s shoulders.

“Ah, I don’t think he’d be able to resist getting up and running around with you if you did,” Raihan began delicately. “What about in a few days, you come visit? Let him rest first?”

“I guess you’re right,” Hop scratched his head. “But we gotta do something,” he turned to his mum, relighting those bright eyes of his. “Should we send him some food?”

“Any requests, Lee?”

“Pinakbet,” Leon’s shoulders deflated, with a fond smile playing on his lips. “Or adobo, if you have time. I’ve been craving it.”

“Coming right up,” Agnes gave Raihan a wink. He hoped it was one of approval for wrangling Hop a little bit. “I can post it to you.”

“No need, I’ll pick it up when you’re ready,” Raihan offered. “Been a while since I visited the lab, anyway.”

Leon looked to him with a grateful smile when the call ended, bringing his hand up to his lips to press a kiss between his knuckles.

“You’re so good with them,” he beamed. Raihan, in his never-ending battle to resist the urge to wrap himself around Leon and hold on tight for the rest of his days, jerked forward to hug him, but remembered partway down that it would hurt him a great deal, and settled for a kiss on Leon’s forehead.

“They make it pretty easy,” Raihan reflected, carding the fingers on his free hand through Leon’s hair. He checked his phone again for the time and frowned, not pleased with what he saw.

“I should get going.” The season was picking up, which meant his rigorous training schedule was back in full swing, and he had already postponed today’s workout by multiple hours to take Leon to the doctor. It wouldn’t be fair to his trainers to keep them waiting. They all had keys, and had stated they’d be okay without them, but Leon had insisted he go in anyway. “Are you sure you’ll be okay? I can come back tonight.”

“Go be with your team, it’s the first day of regular season training. I haven’t been alone in nearly 24 hours anyway, and,” he and Raihan both peered over the edge of the bed to see Charizard curled up and snoring in his sleep, whistling lightly through his nose. He had been aching to get out of the ball all day, likely aware somehow that Leon had taken injury.

“I’ve got my buddy here to tend to me. Call me tonight?”

“I’ll call you tonight,” Raihan agreed, capturing his lips one more time before heading to the balcony and taking off on Flygon.

He still ached to remain with him, to tend to him and be there for him, but Leon was right. He needed his alone time, and Raihan had a commitment to his gym that he couldn’t shelve so early into the season.

Home, a quick shower, a change of clothes, and he was back on Flygon on his way to the stadium.

* * *

Nessa had moved her to the kitchen, needing a change of atmosphere.

“I’m just so sick of this thing,” she began, reaching out to finger the leaves of the basil plant sitting on her windowsill. “I don’t know why I keep pruning it. Seriously.”

“Nessa…”

“It’s so futile, isn’t it? I’m just gonna kill it. You know I over-water everything. I’m no gardener,” she sighed, but picked off a leaf anyway. The spicy herbal scent was always stimulating, and it generally took over her senses enough to help her catch her breath.

“I’m getting so _fond_ of it though,” she mused, rubbing the leaf between her fingers, elbow propped up on the arm she’d wrapped around her own waist. She couldn’t meet Sonia’s eye—they both knew how unproductive and blatant her avoidance was.

“Nessa.”

Sonia was leaning against the refrigerator with a tragic look in her eyes. Heavy with the pull to hide, to brush off and run away, Nessa inhaled so deeply that her breath hitched, and tried again.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she paused, expecting Sonia to interject. When she didn’t, that meant she was forced to continue and she hadn’t prepared for it; she didn’t have a roundabout way of saying what she felt ready, so it came out all in one breath instead.

“It’s just so easy for you. I got it in my head somehow that I’m not supposed to _care_ about them the way you do. I didn’t think I would ever feel this way about a man.” She took in another breath. “About two men. I don’t feel like I deserve my bi girl card anymore.”

“Listen to yourself, baby,” Sonia watched her with concern. “Listen to what you’re saying to yourself. Is that _really_ what you think?”

Nessa rubbed between her brows, exasperated. It sounded so ridiculous out loud. It was never something she’d hold to anyone beside herself. She didn’t think anything less of Sonia so many years ago when she’d started talking about her complicated relationship with Leon. She didn’t think any less of her now. Why wasn’t she extending the same standards to herself? Sonia was just as much a bisexual woman as she was.

“I just didn’t think it was who I was,” she observed. “I’m...it’s frightening, actually.”

“This kind of thing changes all the time, Ne,” Sonia swept closer, tucking a loose braid behind her ear. Nessa relaxed into her touch. “Why would it frighten you?”

“They’re men.”

“...That’s fair,” Sonia worried her lip. “But you’re already falling for them, aren’t you? And you’re feeling safe with them?”

Nessa caught her forehead in her hand.

“Yes, overwhelmingly. But I freak out every time I think about it—about having to tell them.”

“Well, as much as I know they’d love to hear it, you don’t _have_ to tell them anything you’re not ready to say.” Sonia tipped her chin back up and flashed her a hopeful smile. “You can talk to me about it, though. Your thoughts always make more sense to you once you say ‘em aloud.”

“You’re so right.”

If anything, it would be nice to be able to feel these feelings, rather than shredding them to pieces and burying them somewhere in her head. Sonia was a safe place to start. She could trust her to work her magic and help her untangle them, understand them, and eventually, learn not to be so afraid of them.

“Also, you’re super cute when you’re crushing.” Sonia added with a fond, playful smile.

“I don’t know what I did without an earth sign in my life all those years,” Nessa laughed aloud, seeing Sonia’s shoulders relax when she did. She pulled her in, finding her lips to kiss her.

“I’m gonna give it my best shot. I owe it to them,” she dipped in once more, feeling the comfort and the softness of Sonia’s smile. “I owe it to you.”

“You owe it to yourself,” Sonia reminded her, a hair away from gentle, but she didn’t mind the push.

She felt Sonia’s hand framing the small of her back, the one framing her chin sliding past her braids to join it. They kept meeting and pulling away, with shorter pauses between each breath, and longer connections between their lips. Sonia’s body posture shifted and opened a bit more, pressing herself to Nessa’s chest and savoring her with her palms. She was about to make a comment, but Sonia intercepted with a criminally sexy pout.

“I didn’t get to play when the boys were over last night,” she whined.

“By your own choice,” Nessa teased, angling to nip at the side of her neck. She would never tire of the little wafts of perfume that came through whenever they got this close.

“I felt so stupid for getting so wasted,” Sonia lamented. “Mm, can’t believe I missed the foursome.”

“We’ll all be in Wyndon much more often for the next few months,” Nessa paused to lap over a particularly harsh scrape of teeth in apology for making her squirm. “Plenty of opportunities.”

“Yeah. Won’t be the same, but I—hey! _Ah,_ we can make the time, can’t we?”

Nessa looked up at her, feigning a sheepish grin with her hand folded neatly between Sonia’s thighs, teasing and feeling around over her jeans. Sonia’s hands went to lean on the counter; Nessa had half a mind to hike her up there and drop to her knees, but she knew Sonia wasn’t the biggest fan of sitting up during something like that.

“Sheets are still in the wash,” she spoke against her lips, hand sliding up her lap, under her shirt and over one of her breasts.

“Couch?” Sonia suggested, breathless.

“Works for me.”

* * *

Sonia couldn’t get enough of how athletic and strong her girlfriend was, with chiseled shoulders and arms made for cutting through water and powerful legs to push her forward. Of course, right now, those arms had her hoisted over her shoulder in a fireman's carry, making her shriek with delight and kick around just to test her strength. Naturally, Nessa seemed to be able to keep her balanced without issue.

She let herself be laid on the couch, making herself as pliable as possible; she liked it when Nessa moved her around, doing what she wanted to do, touching where she wanted to touch. She loomed over her, holding herself up with an arm next to her head, which her girlfriend had thoughtfully cushioned with a throw pillow.

Sonia shivered and giggled when Nessa pushed up her shirt once more to expose her stomach, kissing upward toward her breasts while her hand made its way back between her legs. All Sonia could do between gasps was mouth at her forearm affectionately.

“Can I take your bra off?” Nessa asked in that smooth, sexy whisper that gave her chills.

“Yeah,” Sonia bit her lip. “I’m ready for anything.”

“I noticed,” Nessa replied slyly, feeling the new warmth pooling between her legs. Sonia’s hips searched for more and more of her fingers, creating their own friction when Nessa’s teasing wasn’t enough. “We’ll get there, don’t worry.”

“Not worried at all,” Sonia grinned. She arched her back to let Nessa unclasp her bra, and pull it and her jumper off over her head and arms. Her hand immediately walked up to her breasts again, but this time her mouth took over whatever spilled out of her palm, and Sonia hitched.

Nessa barely had time to wrap her lips around a nipple before Sonia decided she wasn’t able to wait for Nessa to take her jeans off for her, so she elected to do it herself. It was a bit of a struggle to slip her hands between the two of them, and even more so to deal with her fly when Nessa was making her tremble, but she managed, and was rewarded with Nessa popping up to help her peel away both her jeans and her underwear.

“Man,” Nessa marveled. “Sorry, baby, I know it’s not your favorite thing to hear, but,” Sonia gasped when Nessa traced her finger curiously over her, wet and wanting, and up further until Sonia bucked into her. “I _love_ your pussy so much. It’s literally perfect.”

“Keep doing that while you say it,” her voice came in with the beginning pangs of fervor that she could never stifle. “I’ll come around to it, e-eventually. Mmm.”

Nessa took that as an invitation to slide down her body and rest her cheek on the inside of Sonia’s thigh. Neither of them had much to say after that, other than the increasing volume and urgency of Sonia’s moaning, encouraging, voicing praise.

They’d been together long enough that Nessa knew exactly how to wind her up, with her tongue exploring everywhere just shy of where she wanted it to be, pulling her into her mouth here and there, flicking it around as she pleased. It drove Sonia wild with want, the way she would press her fingers into her hips to soothe her, keep her tethered so she wouldn’t float away.

She had her hands thrown up and over the arm of the couch behind her, another anchor to support her wanton shifting. She _finally_ got what she wanted—Nessa’s tongue lapping deftly over her in measured strokes, with one of her girlfriend’s hands rubbing her thigh. The hand inched closer and closer, tracing but not entering, and Sonia gasped and rolled her hips with such tense and overwhelming bliss, right at the edge, that she almost didn’t need them.

“ _Fuck_ —oh, _Nessa_ ,” she warned, grasping for purchase in her lover’s hair. It garnered an appreciative hum from her, and somewhere between that, her finger slipping inside, and her tongue winding her up, Sonia unraveled. Nessa knew to make her tongue flat and wide for Sonia to ride herself out on, frantic hips slowing and rolling through her in waves until she collapsed against herself on the couch, gently pushing on her shoulder to signal that she was done.

Nessa was on top of her in an instant, crooning sweetness into the crook of her neck, holding her steady so that she could melt and bask in the rush of endorphins that smacked into her head-on.

“Damn,” Sonia whispered, still twitching from bits of contact. Nessa kissed her and she giggled at the taste of herself.

“Thanks for that.”

“Anytime,” Nessa grinned. Sonia pet her hair, the slowness of her body only managing a few strokes before her hand went limp again.

“I love you,” she breathed.

“I love you, too.”

Sonia mourned the distance the moment that Nessa sat up to pick up her phone off the coffee table, but was pleased to watch her slip out of the camisole she’d been wearing. In just her bra, Nessa folded back into place, on her side wedged between the back of the couch and herself. The warmth of her skin against Sonia’s was more than welcome, and she looked up curiously when Nessa started flipping through her phone.

“You look so sexy right now,” Nessa shifted to face her, and Sonia saw the mischievous glint in her eyes that she’s been missing. “Can I take a photo?”

“Only if you’re in it, too,” she reached to give Nessa’s ass a much-earned squeeze.

“Can I send it to our boys?” Nessa asked, not looking at her directly.

“Ooh, that’ll rile them up. Sure.”

* * *

Leon had just woken from a nap when a new notification flashed up on his phone.

_Nessa sent a photo._

Nessa liked to drop her outfits for the day into their group message room occasionally, so he figured it would be some cute ensemble she put together. It took him by surprise when he swiped through the push notification to see the swell of Sonia’s chest, flushed and shiny with sweat, with her smiling and Nessa wrapped around her, lips pressed to her neck. They both looked like they were a frame away from laughter, but Nessa’s lips were wet and shiny from what he could only assume…

_damn you two lol warn us next time_

_i just got to the gym and nearly threw my phone_

Raihan had already taken the time to reply, clearly, and had followed his message with a series of stickers depicting a brown bear bursting into flames. He assumed he meant this as a compliment.

_real cruel of you to send this to leon tho_

_you know he can’t wank for at least a week, right? lmao_

Leon scoffed with indignance at that. Sure, he was left-handed and had a preference for it, and he _had_ received explicit instructions from his physician to avoid any kind of labored breathing or core agitation, but he had _some_ self control.

Then again, he didn’t have to look down to sense the tent growing beneath the sheets. He palmed at himself uselessly for a moment with a sigh. Maybe he couldn’t control himself as much as he thought.

_You look beautiful as always, both of you._

_hey hey, you took a pretty long time to reply, hotshot. hands where i can see ‘em!_

He laughed and typed out his defense, but kept lingering on the picture regardless. Just a little indulgence couldn’t hurt, right?

He didn’t have as much practice with his right hand, but maybe if he took it extra slow...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the words Leon and his family are using come from Ilocano, a northern regional language in the Philippines. thank you so much to [ashe](https://twitter.com/transnezu) for helping me make sure it flowed and sounded accurate! i hadn't heard the words in a long time, but pinakbet and chicken adobo are still very near and dear to my heart.


	6. Chapter 6

Nessa had read somewhere once that the bob and sink of the waves mimicked the sensory memories of being rocked as a child—which she didn’t doubt—but it was so much more than that for her. It was completely centering. She could feel the sun on her skin, warming the crisp smell of salt that clung to her, with her ears below the water drowning out any other sound, leaving her completely alone with her thoughts. Whenever she needed time to herself, she always found herself out here, swimming out with Drednaw until she could just barely see the shore and floating weightlessly on her back with her eyes closed.

Drednaw was bobbing around next to her, occasionally dipping under the water to snap protectively at anything that came close to them. The sun was beginning its descent under the horizon, so she grabbed hold of Drednaw’s heavy shell and they made their way back to the shore.

Her things were still waiting in the sand where she’d left them, and it looked like she had another missed text from Raihan.

_heading to postwick tomorrow_

_wanna come with?_

As much as she liked visiting Sonia, she was still too raw from their conversation to be able to brave one-on-one time with either Leon or Raihan. That, and she knew that Raihan rarely ordered cabs when he could hop on Flygon’s back instead. Some people were meant for cutting through the air and feeling the wind race past them—she was not one of them.

_pass :(_

_not in the mood to fly, got a lot of work to do._

Neither one of those things were a lie. She knew his training had already started, and the part of the year where her priorities were split evenly between modeling and owning a gym was vastly approaching. According to her calendar, she and her agent had a meeting with some cosmetic brand tomorrow to negotiate a contract. It was probably a bigger deal than the amount of attention that she’d been giving it, but she just hadn’t had the space in her mind to house it this week.

Feelings would still be there after tomorrow. She could unpack them after work.

Still, she read over her response, and the lack of tone made it sound more abrupt than she would have liked. An addendum was needed to soften it a bit.

_thanks though. hope you have fun!_

Her finger lingered over the heart on her keyboard. Raihan was quite liberal with his use of them, she supposed it wouldn’t be too noteworthy for her to punctuate with one.

* * *

Leon’s gate buzzed, and he squinted out the window to see who was there. There was only one person who bothered stopping at the gate even though he never remembered to keep it locked.

Sure enough, he could see long, blonde hair from over the top of the fence.

“It’s open,” he said over the intercom. He wasn’t sure why she never just called him when she was on her way—he was pretty sure she still had a key anyway.

“Leon, this is your last chance,” Oleana replied, coming through with her distinct and enunciated tone of voice. “I can turn around right now and you’ll have the week off.”

That made him smile.

“Come on up.”

When he heard her short rap at the door, he made his way carefully to the main entryway to let her in. It took more time than he would have wanted to make her wait, but Oleana didn’t seem like she was lacking patience. She was just finishing up a quick phone call by the time he got there.

“Morning.”

“Good morning. May I come in?” She had his laptop case slung over her shoulder, along with a paper bag from the local bakery hanging on her arm.

“Of course. Thanks for coming,” Leon gratefully took his bag from her and set it on his kitchen island—one of Sonia’s favorite parts of the house he’d bought last year—and invited her to take a seat at one of the stools in front of it.

Oleana was as sterile as always, with her impossibly high heels and severe fashion fitting better than he expected with the modern decor of his home. He and her both liked things that were clean, streamlined, and a little flashy; he was pleased to see her look over the console cabinet in his entryway and greet it with a nod of approval.

She looked quite at home here, which was nice. They probably wouldn’t have been able to breathe so easily around each other a few years ago.

“How’ve you been?” Leon braved the foreign motion of using his right hand to open his fridge and handed her a can of seltzer.

“How have _you_ been?” she countered, cracking open the can with a satisfying flick. She stood to get some dessert plates for their pastries. He wasn’t surprised that she knew where they were. “I assume you’ve had a strict routine of physical therapy to follow.”

“No, not yet. It’s all rest and ice until next week.” Leon carefully leaned his elbows on the island and unwrapped his cheese and mago berry tart—his favorite—with concealed joy. He took a bite that flaked and fell apart in his mouth, and the sharpness of the sugar coating his tongue pleasantly before the sweet cheese smoothed it away. Oleana was pulling something out of her coat. An envelope.

“From your team,” she held it out for him. With a mouth full of food he took it and thumbed it open. The handwritten well wishes from the battle tower employees barely fit on the spread of the card stock, with some of them having to squish and deform their letters so that they’d fit between the cracks of someone else’s message.

_Finally, the vacation we’ve all been begging you to take!_ joked his receptionist.

 _Take care of yourself, boss! We’ll hold down the fort!_ said one of the BP shop clerks.

 _Get well soon! I want another battle when you’re back!_ taunted a Hyper Trainer.

He read them all in their voices, imagined their faces, and a tear was sliding down his cheek before he could blink it away. Oleana looked up at him with a rare soft expression.

“Somehow, my coffee doesn’t taste the same,” she confessed, tracing her finger over the lip of the can.

They had been working in the same building ever since the change, with her taking on Rose’s role as President, and him moving in with the inception of the Battle Tower. He was so nervous when he pitched the idea to her, and even more so when she agreed and provided him with a strong team of league staff to get it going. She still worked on the same floor as him—in the left wing, while he occupied the right—and they rode the elevator together in silence every morning.

Every morning, he’d hand her the coffee he brewed, because he always made it to the building before she did.

“Try adding some brown sugar,” he replied coolly.

“You’ve been sweetening my coffee?” Oleana asked, cracking a smile.

“For years.”

“You.” She replied simply, but rolled her eyes affectionately. They left it at that.

They always did, and Leon often wondered if they would ever address the Copperajah in the room. Probably not, existing in a silent mutual understanding would be enough. They were both closest to him, before everything tumbled to the ground. They were both still unlearning the beliefs that he’d molded in them. Oleana used to be so protective of him—of her key to success—and Leon...well. He had his own complicated relationship with him, as a concept and as a person.

Their mutual survival was enough.

They finished up their pastries in comfortable silence.

Oleana dusted herself off and said her goodbyes, because work was calling her away once again. He didn’t mind, and was happy she was able to visit and drop off some work for him.

* * *

Raihan’s fingertips traced over the pink impressions on Sonia’s back. The wrinkles in her sheets had left them behind and she laid still, either drifting off or enjoying the attention. He found them charming; the way they mirrored the same detailed imprint her bra would leave behind the night before. He leaned over to kiss her on her spine and she giggled, flinching, ticklish, but humming and allowing it all the same.

Yesterday’s photo had put him in a mood, and when Nessa didn’t respond to his text he just decided he’d ask Sonia if he could sneak in that evening. She was an adult, but out of courtesy for her grandparents, they had taken care to ascend the stairs quietly to her bedroom. Whatever they were too tired to finish last night, they had wrapped up neatly this morning.

Her hair was messy from sleep and sex, accosting him with a fluttering heart when she rolled over to touch his cheek. She always needed some time afterward to come back to Earth, but once she did, she was glowing, beautiful, and relaxed. Raihan loved her neat, manicured appearance, but he’d trade it for this look any day of the week.

“All good?” he asked, not necessarily smug, but pleased with how slow her movements were.

“I’m fine,” she missed the teasing in his tone, catching his hand and sliding her fingers between his. It felt so right. He had this thing—that he craved more than anything else—with Leon, and now, finally, Sonia.

If only…

“I’m worried about Nessa,” he blurted out. Sonia’s expression didn’t change much, although she did make an effort to seem attentive.

“Why?”

“I don’t know, she’s,” he dropped the elbow that had been propping him up on the bed, laying back to stare at Sonia’s ceiling. She wedged herself between his arm and chest to tuck her head under his chin. “She seems kind of closed off. I still don’t really know where her boundaries are.”

“You could ask her,” she suggested. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with checking in, yeah?”

“Yeah, you’re right I guess, but,” Raihan chuckled, his voice raspy from sleep, “it’s kinda intimidating.” He didn’t want to overstep, and he had a habit of being overbearing with people he cared about. “And with everything with Leon…”

“You’re gonna go see him today,” Sonia reminded him, nosing affectionately along his jaw with her sweet voice. “So no need to worry about that. And Nessa—well, you’re allowed to ask her if she’s getting what she needs.”

Raihan thought that sounded reasonable, but something about what she said didn’t exactly fit. Maybe it wasn’t completely accurate to say he was worried about how Nessa felt. He was, in part, and he was curious about it and concerned for her comfort, but he’d also seen the way Leon’s expression changed whenever she pulled away. He knew him well enough to know that they were both feeling the same thing.

Was _he_ getting what he needed? Was Leon?

“I need to go rinse off,” Raihan kissed the crown of her head and gently moved away to stand up. “Can’t be visiting Leon’s mum in this state, can I?”

Sonia had a complicated expression on her face when she watched him break away. She had words on her tongue, but he wasn’t ready to face them just yet.

The shower water was hot running down his shoulders. He pressed his forehead to the tile to feel something cool.

This made things complicated. Could he bear to provide Nessa with the space she needed when he yearned for more? At what point was he respecting her desires, and at what point was he putting himself in a miserable position with no way out? He would just fall further in love with her while she sent him hearts over the phone but kept him at arm’s length.

He really needed to talk to Leon.


	7. Chapter 7

It always amused Raihan how far Sonia would go to make a space hers.

Professor Magnolia had a very specific taste for interior design that was very simple, very green, and quite rustic. Her granddaughter seemed to inherit this same love for customizing a room—or, in this case, an entire research lab—but with a much more modern, colorful style.

Over the years the space had evolved as Sonia brought more and more of herself in, with crocheted planters hanging from the high ceiling and pops of saturated purples and blues accenting the wood interior in a way that wouldn’t work for anyone else but her. The greenhouse full of herbs and other plants was still bursting and thriving like it had always been, but there were new additions, and all the gardening equipment had gotten a Sonia-style makeover. Raihan couldn’t remember another time in his life that he’d seen a Cufant-shaped watering can, but there was no more likely a place than in Sonia’s lab.

Hop had his own desk that was equally colorful, but in a much less curated way. His desk was messier, lined on one side with picture frames of each and every person he loved—which was a lot of the people, since Hop had inherited the family trait of loving without barriers and with his whole heart—and littered with notes and sticky pads with things circled and underlined and liberally punctuated with exclamation points.

“You’re a bad influence,” Raihan remarked under his breath, leaning slyly to Sonia’s side and noting the cluttered note taking style that Hop had adopted. He knew it was her leading by example, if the maps of the tundra lining her bedroom walls were any indication.

“So that’s basically everything!” Hop dusted his palms together with a few claps, concluding his tour of the lab. They were working on some stuff that was so far out of the league’s scope of general knowledge that he was ripe with curiosity and had internalized every word of it.

Using a specific infrared pattern that refracted Galar particles in a way that they could watch how they change the environment in real time, apparently, was the new breakthrough in studying the Dynamax phenomenon. They had learned so much from simply being able to see it, and were working with Oleana on how to implement their findings in the league. Fascinating stuff.

“Not everything,” Raihan, with his hands in his pockets, leaned down warmly and with interest. He held out a palm. “Lemme see your nails.”

“Oh, right!” Hop set down the tablet he was holding and placed one hand in Raihan’s, which Raihan inspected with interest.

“You’re getting _really_ good at this, Hop,” he turned his index finger over a few times so the glitter could catch the light. “You wanna do mine, sometime?”

“Sure!” He beamed, clearly proud of his work. “When we go up to visit Lee, I’ll bring some stuff.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Raihan could see Sonia’s posture shift. Emulating her wasn’t something that Hop did very often or as blatantly as he had with Leon, despite how present she was in his upbringing, but now that they were spending much more time together, it was becoming more apparent how much he looked up to her. As an only child, she had to feel a little good about that, and Raihan felt good for her.

“Thanks for showing me around, guys. I’m gonna borrow the _professor_ for a little bit, and then I’ll be off,” Raihan nudged Sonia, who, after all these years, still got flustered when he called her that. They ascended the stairs to look down on the greenhouse below while Hop flipped through pages of an old book and took some notes.

“Sorry for running off this morning,” he said quietly, hands in his pockets again, watching the light bounce off of the shiny leaves of a particularly expressive _monstera adansonii_. “Got in my head a little bit.”

“Yeah, you did,” Sonia was in front of him, and beckoning him to come closer, so he slid his arms around her waist with his head on her shoulder. “But I only knew that ‘cause I’m an expert in it.”

“You are,” he laughed with her. Sonia put one of her hands on top of his on her stomach.

“I think you’re underestimating how much she values time spent with you two.”

“I just don’t wanna scare her off,” He voiced out loud for the first time. “My heart may not be in the same place as hers, you know?”

“I know,” Sonia tilted her head to the side to rest on his. The Galarica twigs Hop had brought back from the Isle of Armor were finally starting to grow roots, from what she could see. They could probably get those in some soil by next week.

“Just give her some more time, if you can. She’s stressed out with work right now, and with Leon getting hurt, I think she’s a little more on edge than usual.”

“Yeah,” Raihan deflated. “It’s about to pick up for her and me both.”

“But you’ll be in Wyndon a lot more, and she will, too,” Sonia eased him with her fingertips stroking his arm.

As the Gym Challenge began again, the regular series of matches between Gym Leaders would also continue in preparation for Challenger’s Cup. Raihan would be traveling to Wyndon at least weekly, and Nessa was on the league’s schedule just as much as he was. Because of the order of gyms in the challenge, she, Milo, and Kabu would be the busiest first. And she still had at least one more fashion week to do somewhere in the world, if he remembered correctly.

A few years ago she had surpassed Kabu and taken the rank of the third gym leader, with him taking the second slot in her place. It put a lot of extra weight on her, if he recalled, with a backlash of traditionalists who believed in the long-held tradition of ordering grass-type, water-type, and fire-type gyms taking up arms against the decision.

The order of the rest of the gyms had always been flexible, based on the skills of those who lead them, but it was the first time in nearly thirty years that anyone had disrupted the order of the first three gyms. The added pressure of needing to succeed in _spite_ of others’ expectations never seemed to bother Nessa in the past, but the first half of the last two or three seasons had sucked up a lot of her emotional energy, according to Sonia, and he felt like he shouldn’t be surprised that that was happening now, too.

“Raihan?” Sonia pulled him back by the string before he floated away. “You alright?”

“Sorry, just thinking. You’re right. Now isn’t the best time to be expecting a lot from her,” he admitted, but it was still hard to swallow. “I really care about her, Sonia. I just want her to know that it’s not like last time.”

“I can’t say too much without her permission,” Sonia pondered, still, resting against his chest on her back. “But I can tell you that her and I have been talking about you. And Leon.”

“Really,” Raihan posed more as a realization than a question. “That’s nice to know.”

And it was fair. If her and Nessa were exploring things, whatever they were, he was just happy to be considered at all. He could keep that in his back pocket whenever he was feeling insecure about it. If revealing any more would be a breach of privacy between them, that was fine. Raihan just needed a reason to keep the flame going.

“I should get back to work,” Sonia sighed, gently wiggling away from Raihan’s embrace and turning to face him. “You’re off to see Leon?”

“Nearly. Have to pick up the goodies first,” his fingers lingered around hers.

“Mm. I got roped into that, so it’s more than you think.”

“Oh yeah? Great, he’ll love it, then.”

“Give him a hug for me,” Sonia sounded sad, like she regretted not being able to break away from her responsibilities to be with him. He still hadn’t heard much about what had happened between them the first time, but now certainly wasn’t the time to ask.

She walked him back to the door to see him off, not before Hop barreled into him for a hug goodbye. He ruffled his hair affectionately, and Hop ducked back inside.

“Hang in there,” they said, candidly in unison, and Raihan watched her weary expression become lighter.

“I will,” he swept in to kiss her.

“Me, too,” she smiled against his lips.

* * *

Leon had been so excited for Raihan’s visit—and the care package from his family—that he’d woken up early and finished all of the day’s work by noon, so he’d started on things he had lined up for next week, finishing those by four.

He couldn’t do much else _besides_ work, and as much as it wasn’t his favorite thing to do, it kept his mind busy and the little puzzle of fitting schedules together and finding solutions to problems remotely was quite satisfying. The soreness wasn’t as bad today, so when all that was finished, he was free to meander around the halls of his house with Dragapult stalking playfully behind him.

“What do you think? Should we get something to hang here?” he asked her, gesturing carefully to a plot of empty space on the wall. She tipped her big, wide head to the side curiously and chirped at him. The Dreepies skittered out and phased into the wall, peeking their heads out to nip and squeak at each other.

“Be nice, you two,” he reprimanded. The little one had a bad habit of playing too hard with its housemate, and they would get into fights because it didn’t realize they weren’t just wrestling. His phone buzzed in his pocket so he pulled it out and they flew back to his side, eager to see what had captured his attention.

_Raihan sent a photo._

Well, wasn’t that a sight. It was, predictably, a front-facing camera photo of Raihan with his mother. He had his arm around her shoulders, both of them smiling. It looked like they were in the kitchen, based on the color of the cabinets peeking out behind him.

Leon was so relieved and pleased that he and his mum got along. Raihan could get along with almost anybody, and his mum could easily do the same if she wanted to, but she was a lot more wary of who she associated with than Leon was. She was also quite vocal about who she thought Leon should and shouldn’t be spending time with, and even if she was always right, it warmed him to see that his lover and his mother had a good relationship.

Seeing them like this now, it was hard to even remember the first time that they met, much less the first time _after_ Leon had told her that Raihan was the mysterious boyfriend he’d been hinting about. She had said she knew all along and that Leon was a terrible liar, and both Raihan and himself were jumpy and paranoid around her for most of the night. Now, she would kiss his cheeks and tell him to eat more, just like he was another one of her sons.

_your mum’s so cute lol_

_She is, isn’t she?_

_yeah!!_

_she hop and sonia made you LOADS of food. i’m leaving now i’ll be there in a few hours ❤️ see you soon b_

_See you then! ❤️❤️_

Even on Flygon, the ride from Postwick to Wyndon would take at least two hours. He would probably have to stop at a Pokémon Center somewhere in between, but Leon didn’t want to spend another two or more hours waltzing around the house, so he crawled back into bed and started looking for a Raboot hole on the internet to follow until he got bored.

Coming down from the adrenaline high he had this morning, he eventually drifted off with his phone in his hand.

Proper naps were rare occupants in Leon’s schedule because he didn’t often have time to take them, aside from a quick drift at his desk with his head dipped into folded arms. They also sometimes brought with them unpleasant dreams that teetered on the edge of becoming nightmares, especially in more recent years.

He walked down the hollow-sounding corridor that felt familiar and not at the same time, ambling, under duress, struggling to place one foot in front of the other. Leon looked down and recognized a gown, to the side, an IV drip feeding something into him. He pieced together that he was back in hospital, taking the only autonomous act that he was allowed: a walk up and down the halls. He preferred to take them at night when most of the others were sleeping, but occasionally he’d had the bandwidth to visit a fellow patient and brighten their day.

He kept on, but his steps were getting smaller and slower, his posture was sinking, and the end of the hall seemed impossibly far away. Leon saw his hands with webs of deep, dark, unnatural veins coming through in black and purple. He was poisoned again. Falling away to sand in the hall. People rushed to attend to him, but his body deteriorated and he couldn’t hear them or see their eyes—just open-mouthed shouting that fell on no ears.

He was in an hourglass, sand seeping through the opening to the bottom, clawing at the thick walls of glass to get out.

Leon felt fingers pushing away the hair on his forehead and started, gasping, and nearly jumping out of bed before Raihan’s voice soothed him.

“Hey, hey, it’s just me. You were grinding your teeth again,” he spoke softly. Leon’s vision started to clear when he saw Raihan seated on his bed next to him, and he felt safe and at ease just to be under the attention of his heavy-lidded gaze.

Raihan turned down the volume of the world around him and he let out a grateful breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“Was I?” he sat up gently, under Raihan’s care the whole way to a sitting position.

“Yeah. I wasn’t gonna wake you up, otherwise. You looked really cute, napping with a vice grip on your phone,” Raihan mused, pushing Leon’s hair off of his shoulders. “How’d you sleep?”

Leon looked up at him with big eyes—he didn’t want to bother with small talk, he wanted to see what his mum, Hop, and apparently Sonia had worked on for him. Instead of a response, he just smiled wider, waiting expectantly, until Raihan laughed.

“Okay, okay! I already put it in the fridge. Can you stand up, or should I bring it to you?”

“I can walk,” Leon sprang up gingerly, making himself wince, but willing to brave the pain to get to the kitchen.

“Easy!”

Raihan caught up with him just in time for him to rip the fridge open and see that the mostly-empty shelves were now bursting with enormous containers of food, all labeled in permanent marker with his mother’s delicate handwriting. It was way more than he expected, but the things he’d asked for were there, as well as a tightly packed container of rice, a bowl of buko pandan—which Hop had probably made, because of how irregular the cubes of diced pandan jelly were—and a bag full of pancit, with the fat canton noodles, just like he liked.

“This is easily more than a week’s worth of food,” Leon marveled, picking up the container of rice to feel how dense and weighty it was in his hands.

“Oh, wait, I have instructions,” Raihan noted, pulling out his phone to read something. “She said, ‘Make sure he doesn’t microwave it. It’s no good for him or the containers. Put it on the stove,’ uh, and then to ‘give back all the containers when he’s done, because those are my best tupperwares.’”

Leon could hear his mum’s voice in his head when Raihan read aloud and wrapped his right arm around his waist, pulling his chest toward him.

“Thank you so much,” he breathed, happy to feel Raihan’s warmth. “You didn’t have to go out of your way.”

“I wanted to see the lab, anyway. You know, Hop’s been morphing into a little Sonia down there in your absence.” Leon could hear the chuckle rumbling through Raihan’s chest while he rubbed his cheek against him. “And it was nice to catch up with your mum.”

Raihan was always doing things like this for him. Small favors, little errands, just an extra stop, he would always say, but they meant so much more because Raihan _knew_ what a boost to his mood it would be. He wasn’t in any condition to travel, and he wasn’t ready for his family to see him so weakened and ailing, but Raihan was willing to take time away from his training schedule to fly across the region just to bring him a piece of home, citing a desire to visit the lab anyway.

And it wasn’t just about the food. Raihan had always been someone who kept him rooted to the ground. He knew how to rile him up and chase him and push him to work hard—which he loved, and would never trade for anything—but he could also sense when it was time to slow down, unspin whatever tangle of emotions and adrenaline Leon had made, and have him be and feel seen under those beautiful, clear eyes. Raihan was the balance he’d craved in his life, the fan to his flame, and the wind under his wings.

He stood up on the balls of his feet to kiss him a few times, lacing each one with a _thank you_ or _I love you_ , which Raihan returned.

“Well, are you hungry?” he asked, and it occurred to Leon that he hadn’t eaten all day.

“Famished,” he replied with a grin.

“Good, I’ve been eyeing that adobo since she handed it to me,” they shared a laugh, with Leon ripping into the container and letting the smell of garlic and vinegar flood into the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I tried my best to find a happy medium for how long traveling actually takes in Galar. I know that in Twilight Wings, they find Leon when the sun's still out, but don't arrive at the stadium until it's dark, but that could feasibly happen in two hours...I just didn't want Raihan's day trip to be 4+ hours both ways, even if that is the more realistic way of looking at it.
> 
> Also, if you've never had [chicken adobo](https://panlasangpinoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Chicken-Adobo-Recipe.jpg), [pinakbet/pakbet](https://panlasangpinoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Pinakbet-Ilocano.jpg), [pancit bihon with canton noodles](https://panlasangpinoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Pancit-Canton-at-Bihon.jpg), or [buko pandan](https://panlasangpinoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Buko-Pandan.jpg), these are all examples of what they look like! I like to think that Leon is more interested in the savory foods than the sweet buko pandan salad (which is basically just flavored jello with some kind of tapioca/sago pearls swimming in cream), but I wanted Hop to make one of his favorite dishes, too.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long time no see! i've been very busy with a new job and all the ,, world events we are living through at the moment ahaha  
> there's probably only one or two chapters left of this one. thanks for sticking with it.

It was a rare, mild day in Wyndon. Sun filtered through the windows to give stage to the shadows of branches and leaves that danced and played on the walls. Such a kind breeze was a treat, a break from the bracing winds that had been surging up from Hammerlocke over the last few weeks. The humidity was quite forgiving, and the quiet peace of the comfortable neighborhood he lived in brushed the red bricks and settled into the mortar in a sweeping, lazy sigh. It felt like the weather was finally taking an indulgent holiday from being so bustling and severe all the time.

Leon was inside, enjoying none of it.

The week and a half of bed rest had done a number on his mental health. He was itching to get back to the swing and step of everyday life—of every day _work_ —that gave his life purpose and structure. His team was likely already overloaded trying to divvy up as much of his work as they could, save for the few hours a day of clerical work that he could knock out from his laptop. Without the daily demands of being the Battle Tower owner keeping him going, he didn’t have anything to feel good about doing. Getting in and out of bed was uncomfortable, preparing food was unsatisfying, and he couldn’t rely on seeing anyone unless they went out of their way to him. After the visit from his family came and went, Leon spent most of his days sleeping and wallowing.

As transparent and loud as his emotions were, it was no wonder the other three caught on and started staying over as much as they could. Raihan slept over three days at a time, since his commute was the shortest, but was back home for the next few. Nessa had just unpacked and had been staying with Sonia in one of the other bedrooms, but Sonia had been putting in long hours at the lab that really didn’t suit a trip back and forth from the northern tip of the region every day, so she’d stubbornly conceded to going home until the weekend. Nessa had plans to be here for another few days while she worked with her agent in Wyndon.

Leon had been dreading being alone with Nessa out of sheer fear of overstepping an invisible line, but the two of them had actually found themselves slipping into something that worked without much friction.

In the morning, she made breakfast while he kept her company, letting her use him as a sounding board to get through her whole schedule and organize her day while she chopped onions, cracked eggs, and dressed with herbs. Leon learned quickly that she made it a point to tackle something that scared her at least once per day. Admiration welled in his chest whenever she got to that point in her daily rundown, and he always waited until the end of the day when she would come home and gush about how she conquered it.

“So I’m meeting with the manufacturer around eleven,” Nessa took a step back from the stove with a spoon in her mouth, another with a heap of something red on it pointed at Leon. “Hmm. This needs something. What do you think?”

Leon took the bite offered to him and shrugged.

“Tastes fine to me, I don’t know the difference.” Leon didn’t know what she was making, much less how to enhance the flavors of it, but it was better than anything he could come up with. Nessa snapped her fingers.

“Sugar, cut the acidity,” she mused, looking to Leon for a reaction.

“Sure,” he shrugged. Nessa seemed satisfied with that.

“So, meet with the manufacturer, hopefully that won’t take more than two hours, but we’ve got a ton to go over,” Nessa continued. “After that, I’m actually—done for the day? Wait, really?!”

“You? Finished with work by one?”

“I know!” Nessa had a notebook spread out on the counter next to her. “No, that’s right—I’ve really got a day off today.”

“Congratulations,” he watched her crack eggs into pockets of the sauce and transfer it to the oven. “Anything planned for your day off, then?”

“I don’t know,” Nessa sounded actually stumped by this. Her fingers drummed against the wooden topper on the kitchen island. “Maybe go for a walk or something? What do you wanna do today, Leon?”

“Me?” he felt like a fool for letting his cheeks warm. Leon hadn’t expected to be involved in her plans when he asked. “Ah, I’ve just got to get my PT out of the way. That’s no fun though, so I can take care of it while you’re gone.” _Which translates to: I’m not going to do it_ , he clarified in his head.

Leon knew he was sabotaging himself by not doing anything about his injury, but even thinking about it knocked all the wind out of him. It wasn’t like regular training, which was fun and all about pushing yourself to see how far you could go. Just uncomfortable and confusing, having to do complicated movements that he could never remember, having to gauge whether he was in pain because it was working or if he was exacerbating the issue with improper form. He just couldn’t muster the resolve to get it done unless someone was there to walk him through it. Raihan got squeamish and nervous watching him wince through it, and Sonia would get frustrated trying to convince him to do it at all. He and Nessa had some success with it, when she was around; but, he didn’t want to bother her on her day off by asking her to help him with it.

“What about your ‘scary’ thing?” he departed, not ready to linger on an object of soreness any more.

“I think I _will_ go for a walk today,” she deflected back with expertise, watching the clouds through the window. She was good at moving past questions, too, with all her experience with intrusive interviewers. “Want to come with? We can go after we do your stretches. I should be home by half-one.”

“Sounds nice,” Leon resolved, taking a page out of her book. Spending time alone with Nessa and getting through physical therapy...that was _two_ scary things. They finished breakfast in what he hoped Nessa perceived as comfortable silence, but the telling pace of his pulse revealed to him that it was just his nerves.

* * *

She ended up getting back earlier than expected—much earlier than he was mentally prepared for—looking refreshed and relieved to be finished with her day.

Nessa sat cross-legged in a chair with a white packet of paper in her hands while he panted and groaned through the last set of stretches. This one was the worst, so he always saved it for last.

“You’re almost there, Leon, just breathe,” Nessa’s calm voice cut through the smoke and heat and tension that clouded Leon’s brain.

“How’s my form?” he gritted, trembling just from holding a plank position on his elbows. He heard papers rustling while she switched between two pages and compared his body to the illustrations she was looking at.

“Try to straighten your back a little more, you’re bowing down.”

It was frustrating how difficult this was. Before all of this, he could nearly hold this pose for three minutes. It felt shameful, needing someone to remind him to straighten his back, keep his head in, tighten his core. This was elementary-level stuff.

His readjustments must not have been satisfactory, from the way she breathed and hopped off the chair to lay her hands on him.

“Almost there,” she encouraged, guiding his abdomen back into place. He wondered if she could feel the instability in his back as he tried to control his burning, angry core. “Now, shift your weight to one hand and raise your arm— _slowly_ , Leon—over your head, just like that.”

Having her hands to frame him and offer support kept him in line, even if she wasn’t putting any weight on him. It hurt, but nowhere near as much as it would to do this alone.

“Okay, swing out to the side, good, you’re doing great, hon, just hold it there,” he could hear her counting under her breath. “Eight more seconds. Seven, six, five, four, three…”

Twice more on that side, and then they switched to the right, and afterward Nessa stretched his legs for him while he breathed deeply on his back. He felt her slender fingers smoothing his hair away from his face.

“You’re done. How does it feel?” she asked gently.

“Thank you,” Leon looked at her meaningfully, trying to convey his gratitude without the vulnerability of forming the words. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten through that without your help.”

Either Nessa didn’t know what to say, or Leon was just being too transparent with his emotions, because they lingered there looking at each other for at least a few more beats. If things were different he would have let his arm slide up her shoulder and guide her down to meet him, but things between them were still precarious, so he indulged himself in flicking his eyes between hers and her lips.

“Anyway,” Nessa pulled away just as he expected, “How about that walk? I’m sort of on the mood to take the train to Hammerlocke.”

It was a beautiful day in Wyndon, but Leon was due for a change of scenery.

“Sure, sounds like fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't think i would have continued to work on this fic were it not for all of the kind and heartfelt feedback i've received over the last few months.. thank you so much everyone for fanning my flames and keeping me inspired :,) finding other people who love these four always gives me a little boost. we are small but we are...mighty...(wheeze) (what am i saying)


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